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Bill Irby's blog

Shopping and buying things is a big part of our economic culture. I’ve read on numerous occasions that we have a “consumer economy” which I think means that our economic progress as a nation is tied to people earning a living and then spending a good portion of it on doing stuff and acquiring things. I took economics in college back in the fading reaches of time and can honestly say I remember very little of that course.

By the time you read this our 2017 VBS will be wrapped up and put to bed. I’m sure that it will have been a great week. I know that a tremendous amount of work was done to make it successful and a blessing to the children (and adults) that came. Our folks always do a great job!

Most of us spend the greater part of our lives working in order to “make a living.” Economic systems are built around some form of the concept of people exchanging their time and talents for compensation. Thus Romans 6:23 is completely understandable: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Like most folks I have a hobby or two and those hobbies have equipment associated with them. I like to walk for exercise and there is always a new shoe to try that will make my feet hurt less and make me a paradigm in the world of old man exercise. I like to fiddle with hifi stereo equipment and there is always something new in that world. I have friends who play a bit of golf and I understand that there is always a new club or ball that will be just the thing. Whatever it is, there is always going to be just the latest thing.

The life of King David holds many lessons. He exemplified strength and intelligence while manifesting human frailty. He could be a noble son, servant and king but he was also a man of passion as we saw with Bathsheba and Uriah. David was like us and we are often like him. We have our principles and we work to maintain them but we sometimes come up short.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matt. 5:6 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Ps. 42:1-2.

Toward the end of the book of Daniel there is some prophecy that has an air of finality about it. God exercised His judgment in intermediate stages at times, as was the case with Judah being taken into Babylonian captivity. Daniel was a victim of that. There would be other times when God would do His will in judging the nations and His people. Indeed, the temple known as Zerubbabel’s, built after the return from this captivity would be destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

We remember Luke’s description of the “great commotion about the Way” recorded in Acts 19:21-41. Paul had preached and taught in Ephesus as he had in Athens (Acts 17) that God was not created but is the Creator. This caused quite a stir among the craftsmen who made souvenir models of the temple of Diana (or Artemis) for sale to the people who came to visit that famous place. I think we have all picked up little things like this in our travels.

Abraham was called the friend of God (James 2:23). We find at least one time that this occurred in 2 Chronicles. Jehoshaphat was facing battle against overwhelming odds and so he prayed for God’s help. In that prayer he said to the Lord, “Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?” (2 Chronicles 20:7). Jehoshaphat was praying and at the same time doing a little pleading with the Lord that He keep their enemies from throwing them out of the land.